The Girl in the Iceberg
by fireflyAndy
Summary: Book 1, Water as if Katara was the Avatar and Aang was a water tribe member. Characters can get a little OOC but I think you can get the general idea. Enjoy :)


The Girl In the Iceberg

Canoe fishing with his older brother was becoming something of a past time for Aang. Somehow Sokka always managed to end up wet and angry, more often than not because Aang was playing a joke on him, and this trip was no exception. Aang and Sokka were both eyeing the depths for fish when Aang snagged one. He moved his arms fluidly trying to pull up the water with the fish in it while his older brother eyed the crystal blue water carefully for his prey. A small bubble began to emerge from the water, and slowly but surely, so did a fish.

"Sokka look!" He exclaimed with excitement.

"Shush Aang! You'll scare it away. Hmm I can already smell it cooking!" He replied, still eyeing the water.

"But Sokka, I caught one." He turned to show his brother his prize. Sokka ignored him and continued to hunt the fish. Just as he drew back for a strike, the edge of the harpoon shot right through Aang's water bubble and knocked the fish back into the water and its bubble just splashed down onto Sokka. "Hey!" Shouted Aang angrily.

"Why is it every time _you _play with magic water _I_ get soaked?" Sokka whirled on his younger brother, hatred flaring in his blue eyes.

"It's not magic its waterbending-" He began to retort grumpily.

"Yeah and it's unique to our culture, blah blah blah. Look I'm just saying if I had weird powers I'd keep them to myself." He grumbled, draining out his wolf's tail.

"You're calling me weird? Have you taken note of yourself lately?" Before Sokka could muster up a sarcastic response their canoe caught the currents and was rocketed around the ice. "Go left, Sokka, left!" Aang directed. The canoe continued right and was crushed between two giant ice rafts, rocketing the brothers onto the ice, cold with no food, no supplies and no easy way home. "You call that a left?"

"You don't like my steering? Well maybe you should have put a spell on the water and waterbended us through the ice." He responded sarcastically. "I knew I should have left you with the women and children."

"Oh so it's my fault then?" Aang's pale cheeks began to flush red.

"Leave it to a kid to screw things up." Sokka gave a disgruntled murmer under his breath.

"You know what? I have had about enough of you blaming me when you screw up!" He waved his arms in anger. The iceberg behind him began to crack. "Ever since mum died I got stuck with all the work around camp while you go off and play solider. I even wash the clothes! Have you _ever_ smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, not pleasant!" The waves began to crash with his swings.  
>"Uh Aang?" Sokka spoke feebly, eyes growing wide at the iceberg behind his younger brother.<p>

"No!" Aang yelled. The red flush from his cheeks had gone and entered his eyes. "Just because I'm the waterbender I get stuck with all the responsibility, well I am done helping you! From now on you are on your own!" He finished with an angry flourish of his wrist and the iceberg behind him violently crashed apart. Aang turned to face the block of ice and was left shocked when the falling pieces forced their ice raft back ten to fifteen metres. Once Sokka regained his cool he turned on his brother.

"Ok you've gone from weird to freakish Aang."

"You mean, I, did _that_?" He asked, gob smacked, the majority of his rage dissapating.

"Yup." Sokka accused. "Congratulations."

The water below them began to glow with a brilliant turquoise sheen. The brothers clutched to the edge of their ice raft as a glowing spherical iceberg began to ascend through the depths and Aang and Sokka were bathed in a blinding blue light. At the center of the ball was a silhouette of a girl, the arrows on her body that were glowing the same blue of the ball, she was just below another silhouette with no decisive shape. Aang stared on in awe as her eyes opened with the same ethereal glow.

"She's alive! We have to help" Aang exclaimed, snatching up his brothers club and hopping across the ice rafts to reach her prison. He had already begun his first strike on the iceberg when a voice called behind him.

"Careful Aang get back here! We don't know what that thing is!" Aang ignored him and with several swings and several loud grunts he managed to have an affect on the ice. A large crack shot up from the place he had been striking and a jet of air knocked him back into his brother who was still cautiously approaching. The blue light shot straight up in a glowing column before vanishing. Out of the iceberg crawled the girl, her eyes and arrows still bright. She stood at the rim for a moment before the glow faded completely and she began to fall. Aang rushed forward to catch her just in time. She was so small and fit delicately into his arms. Sokka came over to inspect and poked her in the head with his harpoon a few times. Aang grabbed at it and pushed him away.

"Stop that!" Aang turned his gaze back to the girl and found her eyelids trying to flutter open. When they finally did he was shocked to see they were not the crazy blue glow anymore but the regular blue eyes that were commonplace in the South Pole. Those blue eyes met his full of confusion.  
>"Please," She begged, "I need to ask you something." Her voice came out as a groan, as if it took all her effort to form words.<p>

"What is it?" Aang asked softly.

"Come closer," She choked, barely a whisper. Aang moved his head so he was just inches from her face. She hesitated for a moment before her lips began to curl into the ghost of a grin. "Will you go penguin sledding with me?" Her tone was normal, upbeat. Completely unaware of the whispers she had produced moments before. Aang was shell-shocked.  
>"Uh, sure? I guess." Aang was thrown back when the girl jumped, or floated, up.<p>

"What's going on here?" She asked, turning back to the icy crater. Sokka exclaimed in shock.  
>"You tell us!" He accused. "How'd you get in the ice?" He prodded her with his harpoon. "And why aren't you frozen?"<p>

"I don't know genius, why else would I ask." She replied. A groan sounded from the iceberg. "Oh!" she exclaimed. The young girl clambered up the side of the iceberg and leapt into the pit. "Appa!" Aang and Sokka followed up the ice to see a gigantic white monster also covered in arrows with the girl clinging to its face. They watched on in an odd mix of horror and curiosity. The girl began to climb over to one of his eyes, sliding the lid open before moving to his jaw. "Come on Appa wake up! Are you okay buddy?" She asked with an odd tone of humour and concern. She began trying to open the beast's jaw. She was soon raised into the air on a giant, wet, pink tongue. "Appa!" She squealed. "You're okay!" and hugged his nose.

"What is that thing?" Sokka jeered, fear plain on his face.

"This is Appa." The girl exclaimed delightedly. "He's my flying bison."

"Right." Snorted Sokka. "And this is Aang, my flying brother." Aang and the girl turned to glare at Sokka. Appa began to inhale strangely and the girl panicked, ducking to the side. A large sneeze rumbled through the beast and a plume of green projectiled straight for Sokka, coating him in snot.

"Don't worry," The girl said lightly, trying to hide her laughter. "It will wash out. So, do you guys live around here?"

"Don't answer that!" Sokka interjected. "Did you see that crazy blue light? She's probably a spy for the Fire Nation." Aang rolled his eyes, to the relief of the girl.

"Yeah she's definitely a spy. Just look at the evil glare in her eyes." He mocked. The girl just fidgeted and put on a friendly smile. Aang turned to her fully. "The paranoid one is my brother Sokka, and I'm Aang. You never did tell us your name."

"Oh, I'm Ka-Ka-Kata- Achoo!" She vanished in a cloud of wind. A few seconds later she fell back down and slid along the ice. "I'm Katara." She held out her hand for a handshake. Sokka looked on in horror.

"You just sneezed! And flew ten feet in the air!"

"Really?" She asked, scratching her head she glanced up. "If felt like eighteen."

"Oh!" Gasped Aang, wonderment bursting from his eyes. "You're an airbender!"

"Sure am!" Katara responded, innocence filling her features.

"Giant blue light beams, flying bison, you're an airbender. I think I've got Midnight Sun madness. I'm going home to where things make sense." Sokka groaned. He turned to leave and was faced with the vast emptiness of the bay.

"Well if you two are stuck I can fly you home on Appa?" Katara spun in a quick circle rocketing herself onto the bison's head.

"Sure!" Aang piped up immediately, grinning ear to ear. "We'd love that, thanks!" He approached easily and began to climb up the side of Appa.

"Oh no. No way am I getting on that fluffy snot monster." Sokka backed away, waving his hands in front of him.

"Are you hoping some other kind of monster will come by and offer a ride home? Before you're the one in an iceberg" Aang retorted over the saddle's rim. Sokka opened his mouth to argue but stopped, conceding the point to Aang. He gingerly picked his way up the side of the beast.

"Alright." Katara called. She turned to look Sokka dead in the eye. "Appa. Yip, yip." As Appa began to rise she turned her gaze back to the front. Appa was 20 feet in the air before he plummeted back down into the icy water. "Come on Appa!" She grumbled quietly to her friend. "Yip yip, it means fly you know, its our catch phrase!"

"Wow" grumbled Sokka. "That was truly amazing." She shot him a dirty glare.

"He's just tired, you'd be too after waking up in an iceberg after..." She tralied off before shifting her gaze to her other passenger only to be met with a pair of ashy silver eyes locked on her. The young boy's face was lit up with a goofy grin.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?" She asked gingerly.

"Smiling? I was smiling?" Before Katara could reply she was met with yet another groan from the older boy. She rolled her eyes and concentrated on steering Appa through the ice.

The sky grew darker and the evening stars began to shine through the blues of the night. Aang climbed to the front of the saddle and peeked over at the girl lazing on Appa's head.

"Hey," Katara smiled sitting up slightly on Appa's head.

"Hey," Aang returned, his eyes distant.

"Whatcha thinking about?" She asked gently.

"Well I was just wondering, since you're an airbender and all, if you knew what happened to the avatar?" Katara stiffened all over at the mention of the 'A' word, she looked away slightly, an odd emotion rolling across her features.

"Uh no, I didn't know him." Aang didn't believe that for a second, 'she was probably his girlfriend.' he thought absently. "I mean I knew people who did" She continued. "The monks would talk about him but I never met him, sorry." She looked Aang in the eye gently, uncertainty plain on her face, before lying back down. She didn't know when but somehow she managed to fall asleep on Appa under the gaze of the stars.

She felt the waves pulling under her and opened her eyes to a storm like the one that trapped her in the iceberg. She screamed, fighting for control from the wind that was calling to her. "Katara," It called. "Katara wake up!" She closed her eyes to avoid the wind and when she opened them she was in a tent. Aang was leaning over her gently. Her chest heaved with her breaths. "Its okay, we're in the village. Come on out! Everyone is waiting to meet you." He was headed for the door when she turned to her clothes. Katara was in a loose singlet and bindings that didn't leave much of her arrows to the imaginations. She tugged on her Air Nomad robes while Aang watched in a revering awe. His eyes trailed her arrows from her wrists up her arms and from her neck down to her bindings before he got a hold on himself and turned to give the girl some privacy. Katara was at his back in moments brandishing a thick, brown stick about half a foot above her height before he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the tent.  
>"Katara, this is the whole village." He said, gesturing towards half a dozen children and about thirty women varying from late twenties up to a woman who was in her seventies. "Whole village," He joked. "This is Katara." She blushed gently under the 'whole village's' scrutinous gaze.<p>

"Why are they looking at me like that? Did I forget to wear pants or something?" She glanced down to make sure her legs were in actual fact, covered.

"No child," The eldest woman purred. "It's just no one has seen an airbender in a hundred years. We thought they were extinct." Katara froze for a second.

"_Extinct?"_ The words felt foreign on her tongue.

"Katara, this is my grandmother." Aang placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and gestured towards the elderly woman.

"Call me Gran Gran." She affirmed. Sokka appeared at her side and lunged for the stick.

"What is this? A weapon?" He eyed it for secret blades. "You can't stab anything with this!" Katara rolled her eyes and snatched it back with airbending.  
>"Its not for stabbing. Its for airbending." She ran her hand along the length of the stick. Giant wings spurted from the center of her staff. "My staff allows me to control the air currents around the glider and fly."<p>

"Last time _I_ checked, humans can't fly!" Sokka crossed his arms and looked at the young girl disapprovingly. She simply grinned, a full toothy grin that spoke of trouble.

"Then you need to check again." She placed her staff behind her and gripped two of the studier fan blades. She took a few breaths before bending her knees slightly and rocketing up into the clouds. Katara performed a few loops before circling to land again. Unfortunately she mistimed it and came head first with a wall of poorly compacted ice bricks.

"My watchtower!" some voice screamed, climbing a few octaves above the norm. It was backed up with a boyish laugh and several children giggling behind their hands. Katara pulled herself out of the snow pile and sheathed the fans on her glider restoring it to a staff.

"That was amazing!" Exclaimed Aang, helping her brush the snow out of her robes.

"Yeah, you're an airbender, Aang's a waterbender and together you just get to waste time all day!" Sokka grumbled angrily. Katara's eyes filed with incredulity.  
>"You're a waterbender? She asked hopefully.<p>

"Well sort of," He mumbled, scratching the back of his neck. "Not yet."

"That's enough Aang. Come, you and your brother have chores." Gran Gran ordered before turning for one of the snow huts. Aang followed forlornly after his grandmother.

"She's the real deal Gran Gran, I finally found a bender to teach me!" Aang's excited voice warbled over the snow.

"Try not to put all of your hope in this girl Aang." The elderly woman warned. Katara felt her stomach drop. She wandered over to the kids who were playing. They stopped to stare at her as she approached. One stepped over to her and pointed at the staff.  
>"Can you teach me to fly?" The little girl asked. Katara laughed lightly.<p>

"I could if you were an airbender but you would be a waterbender if you were a bender kiddo. I could make you fly a little though if you want?" The young girl's eyes lit up like turquoise. Katara moved her hands gently forming an air funnel under the girl. It lifted her about a foot in the air and her squeals of delight echoed around.

"But she's special! I can tell. I sense she's filled with much wisdom Gran-" He was cut off by a giggle. Aang and Gran Gran turned to the floating child and the airbender. Katara slowly set the girl back down.

"Yay!" The kid screamed, sourcing giggles from the other children. "I am an airbender too!" She ran in a circle with her arms out.  
>"Not quite little one," Katara said softly, her words lost on the girl. Sokka grumbled, leaving his tower, and gathered the children, herding them away from Katara as if she were a two headed rat viper.<p>

"Again" Ordered an ancient voice. The group of firebenders ran out a drill atop the hull of a ship. "No!" Repeated the voice, following with a sigh. "Power in firebending comes from the breath. Not the muscles! The breath becomes energy in the body, that energy extends past your limbs and becomes fire." He struck forward to demonstrate. "Get it right this time!" A young man stepped forward, stopping before the old man.  
>"Enough. I've been drilling this sequence all day. Teach me the next set. I am more then ready." He growled.<p>

"No." Stated Iroh. "You are impatient. You have yet to master your basics. Drill it again!" The young man turned to the others and grunted. He kicked out at one of them and sent a high paced fireball that knocked him over before he could block it.

"The sages telleth that the Avatar is the last airbender. He has to be over a hundred years old by now. He has had a hundred years to master the elements I'm going to need more than basic firebending to defeat him. You _will_ teach me the advanced set!"

"Very well." Conceded Iroh. "After I finish my roast duck." He pulled up the bowl next to his chair and began eating with chopsticks.

With the others occupied with chores and whatnot Katara was a little lost at what she should do and settled for exploring. She passed huts with the women teaching the girls to sew and perform the 'typical' wifely duties they would be expected to perform, as they grew older, and various huts that were closed up. Just beyond the circular walls was a group of boys sitting in front of a larger boy, Sokka.

"Now men, its important that you show no fear when you face a firebender. We fight to the last man standing, for with out courage, how can we call ourselves men?" One of the younger boys shot a hand up.

"I gotta pee!" He urged. Sokka frowned angrily.

"Listen until your fathers get back from war they're counting on you to be the men of this tribe. And that means, no potty breaks!" The boy just wobbled slightly.

"But I really gotta go!" He pressed again. Sokka just sighed heavily.

"Ok. Who else has to go?" He was met with all hands in the air. Sokka grunted bringing a palm up to his head.

"Sokka?" Called Aang. "Have you seen Katara? Gran Gran said she vanished over an hour ago." Almost at the mention of her name, Katara crawled out of the bathroom.

"Wow," she laughed. "Everything really freezes in there!"

"Aang, get her out of here! This lesson is for men only!" he turned angrily on his younger brother. The two were interrupted by giggled and happy laughter. Sokka turned to find Katara atop the bison with two of the children. They slid down Appa's tail and landed in a pile of snow. "Stop!" He yelled. "What is wrong with you? We don't have time for games with a war going on!" Katara leapt off the fluffy white monster and met Sokka in a small gust of wind that blew snow into his face.  
>"What war?" She asked. "What are you talking about?" Her gaze trailed off into the distance.<p>

"You're kidding right?" Asked Sokka.

"Penguin." She stated critically before leaving them in a trail of snowflakes. Sokka turned to Aang, bewildered.

"She is kidding, right?" Aang just shrugged before following after the mysterious girl.

When Aang finally found Katara she was aimlessly chasing the four-flippered emperors and failing miserably to catch them. She stood abruptly and looked his way when his laugh became too loud to contain.

"I have a way with animals." She laughed gently. "Arrk arrk arrk!" She warbled, mimicking the penguin waddle. Aang couldn't help but laugh even more.  
>"Alright, Katara." He said between laughs. "I'll teach you how to catch a penguin if you teach me waterbending." Katara paused before replying.<p>

"You got a deal, but there's just one little problem. I'm an airbender, not a waterbender. Isn't their someone in your tribe who can teach you? Your grandmother?" Aang turned away slightly.

"No. You're looking at the only waterbender in the whole South Pole." He said solemnly.  
>"This isn't right!" Exclaimed Katara. "A waterbender needs to master water." She stopped, the cogs ticking over in her head. "What about the North Pole?" She asked gently.<p>

"We haven't had contact with our sister tribe in a long time. Plus that's the other side of the world." Katara paused again.

"But you forget Aang, I have a Flying Bison. Appa and I could personally fly you to the North Pole. Aang, you're gonna be a master I promise!" Aang hesitated.

"I, uh I don't know. I've never left home before and there's so much to do here. I don't know if I could leave." He regretted his words, he wanted to accept whole heartedly but knew that he was needed at home. Katara sensed his nerves and amended her offer.

"Well you think about it. In the mean time, how do I catch a penguin?" She asked gently. Aang's face lit up with a troublesome look.

"Listen carefully, pupil Katara, for catching penguins is an ancient and noble art." He pulled a small fished from his sleeve and tossed it to Katara. The second it touched her hand the penguins swarmed her and she had no trouble latching onto one for a sled and before long she and Aang were racing across the ice riding penguinback. They rocketed through caves and down slopes before losing momentum and coming to a stop.

"Woah, what is that?" Katara exclaimed, approaching the gigantic metal ship that loomed before them.

"A firenation ship. A very bad memory from my people." Katara began to walk towards the ship. "Katara stop. We aren't allowed near it! It could be booby trapped." He warned her, fear plain in his voice. She sighed and turned to face the younger boy.  
>"Aang if you want to be a bender, or a real master you have to learn to break the rules." She turned towards him fully. She knelt and ran her hand above the surface of the ice. Several flakes began to ignore gravity and flew to her hand. "When you ignore the rules, the restrictions they hold begin to disappear. Snow is typically a waterbender's element but its actually only half water. The other half is air. By focusing on the air inside the snow I am able to bend it as a waterbender would." She altered her movements and the snow moved to steam with no in between stage. "By heating that air and the air around the snow I can turn it to steam and bend that to my will." She moved her other hand below and stood. "By really focusing and moving the airs against each other to produce friction I can create..." She paused until a spark flew between her hands. "Lightning, like a firebender." She set her hands back to her sides, allowing the air to settle. "Rules are meant to control Aang, not guide. To be a bender you have to let go of the fear of breaking rules." He looked on in awe but nodded and cautiously followed her into the dark abyss of the ship. Together they began to climb into the giant metal monster.<p>

Aang climbed into the gaping entrance first, turning to pull Katara up after him. They explored the echoing tunnels until they stumbled into a weapons hold.

"This ship has haunted my tribe since Gran Gran was a little girl. It was part of the Fire Nations earlier attacks." Aang said, breaking the eerie silence.

"Hold up." Katara stated. "I have been all over the world, I have friends everywhere, even in the Fire Nation. I've never heard of any war."

"Katara," Aang said softly. "How long were you in that iceberg?"

""I don't know, a couple days." She answered.  
>"I think, it may have been more like a hundred years." Aang told her gently.<p>

"That's insane!" She protested, not hearing a word of it. "Do I look like a one hundred and fourteen year old girl to you?"

"Well think about it." Aang urged. "The war is a century old, you don't know about it because somehow you were in there all that time." He puzzled it out. "It's the only explanation."

"A hundred years!" She collapsed into a ball, rolling her head into her knees. "I can't believe it." Aang sat down beside her and placed a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"I'm sorry Katara, maybe there is a bright side to all of this." He offered.

"I did get to meet you I guess. And Sokka's face when I demonstrated the glider was priceless." She glanced up at his grey eyes, they shone back at her like little pockets of liquid silver.

"Come on, lets get out of here." He stood pulling her with him. They exited the weapons hold and continued to the top of the ship. "Katara?" Aang whispered. "Can we go, this place is creepy." She ignored him and continued forward, stopping when she felt a string of pressure on her shin. The pressure was followed by a chain reaction triggering various valves and gauges.

"Uh," Katara laughed nervously, "What was that you were saying about booby traps?" The gate behind them slammed shut. Out of a nearby window the glow of a red flare was visible. "Uh oh." Katara breathed. She spotted an open manhole and grabbed Aang bridal style. The blushing boy was too stunned to offer any resistance. "Hold on." Katara ordered. She rocketed out of the ship, airbending her jumps so they could escape quickly and easily.

On a nearby ship a scarred teen with binoculars watched the flare with increasing curiosity. Zuko watched patiently as the duo flew out of the long abandoned ship.  
>"The last airbender." He affirmed. "Quite agile in his old age." He turned to one of the crew members. "Wake my uncle! Tell him." He turned back to the binoculars and noticed a small village not fair from the two retreating figures. "I've found the Avatar, and his hiding place."<p> 


End file.
